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Toward High Thermoelectric Performance of Thiophene and Ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) Molecular Wires
Author(s) -
Famili Marjan,
Grace Iain M.,
AlGaliby Qusiy,
Sadeghi Hatef,
Lambert Colin J.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
advanced functional materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.069
H-Index - 322
eISSN - 1616-3028
pISSN - 1616-301X
DOI - 10.1002/adfm.201703135
Subject(s) - materials science , thiophene , thermoelectric effect , figure of merit , seebeck coefficient , thermal conductivity , conductance , thermoelectric materials , doping , electrical resistance and conductance , condensed matter physics , optoelectronics , composite material , organic chemistry , thermodynamics , chemistry , physics
The design of thermoelectric materials for the efficient conversion of waste heat into electricity requires simultaneous tuning of their electrical and thermal conductance. A comparative theoretical study of electron and phonon transport in thiophene and ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) based molecular wires is performed. It is shown that modifying thiophene by substituting ethylenedioxy enhances the thermoelectric figure of merit ZT for molecules of the same length. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the electrical conductance of EDOT‐based wires decays more slowly with length than that of thiophene‐based wires and that their thermal conductance is lower. The room‐temperature ZT of undoped EDOT is found to be rather low. However, doping of EDOT by the electron acceptor tolunenesulfunate increases the Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductance, while decreasing the thermal conductance, leading to a thermoelectric figure of merit as high as ZT = 2.4.